There’s been a lot of posts here that actually belong on the politics thread.
Notwithstanding that, thank you Jon MW (& Science Wife) for providing objective, non-partisan and knowledgeable commentary. I know it’s too much to ask that some of the others follow your example; I thought you should know that there’s probably quite a few of us that appreciate your input.
Too many issues in this crisis are media-led, with subsequent commentary politically motivated. As I think you’ve already said, the time for detailed analysis and maybe leveling objective criticism, will be when we’ve got Covid under control (beaten when there’s a vaccine).
Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a lot that with hindsight could have been done differently, but I totally reject any suggestions that a government of a different hue would be in any better shape than we are now. It’s one thing making the decisions, and another to be standing in the crowd and saying “No, you’re wrong, you dipshit”.
Quite - it's nonsensical that a poster who is highly anti Conservative and uses "dipshit" to describe his political opponents then claims he is impartial about COVID.
I’ve been wondering about whether to write more about this, why not. It is perfectly possible to simultaneous slate Boris (the person) all the time and objectively assess his ability to do his job and the performance of his government.
By any measure I’m a scientist, so your criticisms/negative comparisons don’t really stack up.
1. My criticisms of the government handing of the virus have been scientific and (where it is available) evidence based.
2. I’ve made some long term forecasts, that by their nature can’t yet be evidenced, they are looking like good predictions.
3. Anything I’ve written about application of the law, is accompanied by the interpretation of barristers. I don’t think I’ve given my opinion on it anywhere (lmk if I’m wrong), as I don’t have much knowledge of the subject.
4. When I’ve written about the economy being trashed, it’s only relaying the opinion of economists, the one exception being when I though my the OBR were under political pressure to be overly optimistic, they’ve made a correction since.
4. My criticisms of Boris (i) Incompetent (ii) Dishonest (iii) Lazy (iv) Sack of shit
(i) Incompetent:
https://www.gerryhassan.com/blog/is-boris-johnson-the-most-incompetent-uk-prime-minister-in-living-memory/(ii) Dishonest:
https://boris-johnson-lies.com/ He has added greatly to these since, most memorably the NI customs bs, critical in misleading people about Brexit and before GE
(iii) Lazy: I’m not sure I can call this one for sure. Seems to me anecdotally, that he probably is, the only person I’ve ever heard talk about him working hard, is him, which is damning in itself.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/i-was-boris-johnson-s-boss-he-is-utterly-unfit-to-be-british-prime-minister-1.3936109(iv) Sack of shit: Fighting a temptation to argue that there are ways we can measure that show him to be a less able PM than an actual sack of shit would be. It might be a bit subjective though, so I’ll retract this one.
I can’t see a rational argument for saying my views on Boris interfere with my objective assessment of how the crisis is being handled by the government. Certainly not any more so than JMW’s loyalty to the idea they’re competent, trying their best and are just unlucky. Really not having go at Jon, we all have to work from the perspectives that we have, they shouldn’t invalidate our views.